In the words of a previous edition (of Moving Minds) you have to bite off more than you can chew. And then chew. In our humble opinion it is always important to remember that you need a mission. Not one of those lovely generic statements that so many companies use, but something that is quasi-religious and will get you out of bed in the mornings.

For example, when Steve Jobs was trying to persuade John Sculley to defect to from Pepsi to Apple he said ‘Do you want to sell fizzy water for the rest of your life, or do you want a chance to change the world?’ Amen.

The Opera House was built by three extraordinary men. One man designed it, one man that engineered it and one man that said yes. Perhaps the moral here is threefold. One you get what you ask for, two execution is underrated and three you earn iconic status by trying to do hard things very well.